Outdoor Adventures with Ancient Brit
PCT 2002 - Injury break April 30th
Injury time-out: Tuesday 30th April Deep Creek Hot Springs
It was nice to have a lie in on the first rest-day of my hike. Last night I had been
disturbed by a small animal and I now discovered that it had stolen the rubbish bag from
under the flysheet of my tent and scattered the contents, so I had to spend some time
clearing up. It was another clear breezy day with a fine dust blowing around the tent.
Kwan, the Korean I rescued last night, came to New Jersey 25 years ago and had moved
to California 10 years ago. He was a “city boy”, who had recently given up his job as a
pool cleaner, had only just started discovering the countryside and had camped for the
first time three weeks ago. Kwan and “Purboy” were the only people camping at The
Springs.
The Hot Springs are a difficult place to tear oneself away from and it was late morning
before “Purboy” left. In the afternoon “Captain Cheerio” and Carl turned up. Carl, going
under the name “Otter” was heading south from Tehachapi to Campo, expecting to arrive
in the middle of June. As he was grossly overweight he was going very slowly and doing
less than 10 miles/day. Later in the summer he intended to walk the section from Tahoe
to Tehachapi and then to complete the PCT next year. He was using the trip to do a lot of
reading and was into “classic” American Literature at present. He was certainly a lot
more knowledgeable on English Literature than me. At Aqua Dulce I saw parts of a film
he had made a few years ago on a north to south attempt on the PCT. At that time he was
much slimmer, but still doing fairly low mileages and, after successfully getting through
the Sierra Nevada in November, he gave up at Aqua Dulce after 200+ days on the trail.
He had completed the AT in two years in 1992/3. He was able to fill me in on the water
available in the dry lands ahead of me.
“Kiwi” arrived at The Springs at 7.15pm. He had left Campo on 17th April and was
making fast progress. Today, he had walked all the way from Big Bear City, his third 30+
mile day of the week. He was limping badly as he arrived at the Springs with what looked
very like shin splints. He was a banker from New Zealand, who had spent the last 12
years in Europe, mainly working for the Dutch Rabobank in London. After completing
the PCT in August he intended to go sea kayaking in Washington or British Columbia
and then go on to do some cross-country skiing, before returning to New Zealand to try
and find work. He was looking for a challenge and had originally considered the
Continental Divide Trail (CDT) which goes from Mexico to Canada through the Rocky
Mountains, but this trail is only about two-thirds built and getting information on the
route is not very easy yet, so he decided on the PCT.
Frequent soaks in the hot pools seemed to be helping the recovery of my sore heels
and also helped the body recover from a few other minor ailments. At this time of year it
was dark by 8 pm and “Kiwi”, “Captain Cheerio”, “Otter” and Kwan joined me for a late
night soak in the hot pools under the starlit sky.
Camp: Deep Creek Hot Springs
It was nice to have a lie in on the first rest-day of my hike. Last night I had been
disturbed by a small animal and I now discovered that it had stolen the rubbish bag from
under the flysheet of my tent and scattered the contents, so I had to spend some time
clearing up. It was another clear breezy day with a fine dust blowing around the tent.
Kwan, the Korean I rescued last night, came to New Jersey 25 years ago and had moved
to California 10 years ago. He was a “city boy”, who had recently given up his job as a
pool cleaner, had only just started discovering the countryside and had camped for the
first time three weeks ago. Kwan and “Purboy” were the only people camping at The
Springs.
The Hot Springs are a difficult place to tear oneself away from and it was late morning
before “Purboy” left. In the afternoon “Captain Cheerio” and Carl turned up. Carl, going
under the name “Otter” was heading south from Tehachapi to Campo, expecting to arrive
in the middle of June. As he was grossly overweight he was going very slowly and doing
less than 10 miles/day. Later in the summer he intended to walk the section from Tahoe
to Tehachapi and then to complete the PCT next year. He was using the trip to do a lot of
reading and was into “classic” American Literature at present. He was certainly a lot
more knowledgeable on English Literature than me. At Aqua Dulce I saw parts of a film
he had made a few years ago on a north to south attempt on the PCT. At that time he was
much slimmer, but still doing fairly low mileages and, after successfully getting through
the Sierra Nevada in November, he gave up at Aqua Dulce after 200+ days on the trail.
He had completed the AT in two years in 1992/3. He was able to fill me in on the water
available in the dry lands ahead of me.
“Kiwi” arrived at The Springs at 7.15pm. He had left Campo on 17th April and was
making fast progress. Today, he had walked all the way from Big Bear City, his third 30+
mile day of the week. He was limping badly as he arrived at the Springs with what looked
very like shin splints. He was a banker from New Zealand, who had spent the last 12
years in Europe, mainly working for the Dutch Rabobank in London. After completing
the PCT in August he intended to go sea kayaking in Washington or British Columbia
and then go on to do some cross-country skiing, before returning to New Zealand to try
and find work. He was looking for a challenge and had originally considered the
Continental Divide Trail (CDT) which goes from Mexico to Canada through the Rocky
Mountains, but this trail is only about two-thirds built and getting information on the
route is not very easy yet, so he decided on the PCT.
Frequent soaks in the hot pools seemed to be helping the recovery of my sore heels
and also helped the body recover from a few other minor ailments. At this time of year it
was dark by 8 pm and “Kiwi”, “Captain Cheerio”, “Otter” and Kwan joined me for a late
night soak in the hot pools under the starlit sky.
Camp: Deep Creek Hot Springs
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King Snake
Ancient Brit at Deep
Creek Hot Springs
Creek Hot Springs
Ancient Brit at Deep
Creek Hot Springs
Creek Hot Springs